A left-wing teaching union faction is protesting today and threatening to boycott the reopening of schools if its demands over coronavirus safety are not met. The Education Solidarity Network, part of the National Education Union, is holding a ‘day of action’ as it calls for measures including free PPE, smaller classes to allow social distancing … Read more
Where is Boris? We are told he’s camping in Scotland with fiancée Carrie Symonds and baby son Wilfred. It’s hard to imagine him banging in tent pegs, or hunched over a flickering Primus stove. Maybe he’s not really camping and being bitten to death by midges but sheltering in a friend’s house on some pleasant … Read more
Almost one in three GCSE pupils could get top marks today following the exam U-turn fiasco. The proportion with a grade 7 or higher – the equivalent of an old A/A* – is set to rise by almost 30 per cent due to the switch to teacher assessments. This could mean 1.5million grade 7s, 8s … Read more
Watchdog Ofqual knew its algorithm was ‘doomed’ as far back as June but pressed ahead anyway, it has been claimed. An adviser who helped it develop the software said there was ‘always an understanding there would be winners and losers’. Ofqual has always said its system was as ‘fair as possible’ – despite so many … Read more
Gavin Williamson is ‘on his last life’ after his humiliating exams fiasco and will be sacked if Boris Johnson‘s schools reopening is botched, ministers claim. The Education Secretary has defied calls to resign from MPs across the board following his disastrously mishandled A-level grading debacle. Cabinet colleagues now believe that embattled Mr Williamson, who is … Read more
Education union chiefs have today demanded an overhaul of next year’s GCSE and A-Level exams over fears coronavirus could cut school contact time and called for an emphasis shift away from end-of-year exams – because students find them ‘too stressful’. Bosses at the National Education Union (NEU), the UK’s largest teaching union, have written to … Read more
Boris Johnson is defying calls for an autumn reshuffle despite Tory backbench pressure to sack Gavin Williamson over his exams debacle. The PM has been accused of having a ‘lack of grip’ after a series of mishaps during the coronavirus crisis has left the Government being ‘laughed at’. He is expected to make ‘minor’ changes … Read more
Did Gavin’s ‘sinister’ photocall include a warning to his enemies? MPs believe Education Secretary posed with ‘whip on his desk’ to remind ‘circling vultures’ he used to be Chief Whip and ‘knows where the bodies are buried’ Gavin Williamson posed in Department for Education office after A-levels U-turn Mr Williamson was pictured sat behind his … Read more
Gavin Williamson was today savaged over the A-level and GCSE exams ‘farce’ by the British press which called for the Education Secretary to be sacked and described him as a ‘clown’. The Daily Mail used the headline ‘Another fine mess’, with a cartoon of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Mr Williamson as Laurel and Hardy, … Read more
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has slammed government incompetence following the A-level U-turn yesterday – but Gavin Williamson is still expected to stay on. After coming under vast pressure, Mr Williamson decided to allow GCSE and A-level results in England to be based on teachers’ predicted grades. But tens of thousands of pupils still face … Read more